A cellulose composite of cellulose and a polysaccharide has been conventionally known to form cellulose colloid in an aqueous medium and show satisfactory suspension stability and is widely used in the fields of e.g., foods, medicinal products, cosmetics, paints, ceramics, resins, catalysts and other industrial products. Particularly, a cellulose composite is used, e.g., as a stabilizer such as a suspension stabilizer, an emulsification stabilizer and a thickening stabilizer, a texture imparting agent, a clouding agent, a whitening improvement, a flowability improvement, a polisher, a dietary fiber and an alternate material for a fat and oil. For example, in a beverage, e.g., calcium enriched milk, a cellulose composite is added for stabilizing suspension of high-gravity water-insoluble components like milk calcium and calcium carbonate.
Recently, in the field of canned or PET bottled tasty beverages such as cocoa, coffee and tea, products containing components such as cocoa, a coffee extract and a tea extract in high concentrations have been developed for providing rich-taste to them. Generally, if the extract as mentioned above is added in a high concentration, the resultant beverage becomes unstable and a water-insoluble component such as a protein is likely to precipitate. Thus, development of a cellulose composite with higher suspension stability compared to conventional composites has been desired.
Here, to improve the suspension-stability effect of a cellulose composite, various studies have been made.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a water-dispersible composite containing micro cellulose and carboxymethylcellulose sodium.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a water dispersible composition containing micro cellulose and a carboxymethylcellulose sodium of specific physical properties such as viscosity and substitution degree and a food composition containing the water dispersible composition. The water dispersible composition is described to show excellent suspension stability and emulsion stability under an acidic environment.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a stabilizer containing water dispersible cellulose, which contains fine fibrous cellulose that is stably suspended in water and a polysaccharide. The stabilizer serves for fixing particles in an acidic or high salt concentration food and drink such as yogurt, fruit sauce and dressing, contributing to providing commercial products having good appearance. Moreover, Patent Literature 4 describes a fermented cellulose composite. Since the fermented cellulose composite is excellent in dispersion stability and suspension stability, it is used in various types of milk-containing beverages and stable acidic milk beverages can be produced.
Patent Literature 5 discloses a method of obtaining a cellulose composite from crystalline cellulose and sodium carboxymethylcellulose as raw materials by grinding them in a solid content of 35 to 60 mass %, as a method of producing a dispersion stabilizer for solid particles.